Counterfeit-Resistant Label With Multi-Spectral Ink and Tactile Dots
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Solution Overview
Problem
Counterfeiting and relabeling of high-value consumer products are challenging due to the ease with which counterfeiters can replicate labels, altering serial numbers or dates of manufacture to deceive consumers and manufacturers.
Innovation Solution
The implementation of labels with small, seemingly imperceptible dots that create a complex watermark, combined with images having different specular reflectivity levels, and raised ink dots for tactile verification, making it difficult for counterfeiters to replicate the authentic label while allowing trained investigators to identify authenticity.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If traditional labels are used, then manufacturing and application are simple, but they are easily counterfeited and can be altered
Solution Approach 1:
The label is divided into multiple functional layers including a base label, a first image layer with first gloss level, and a second image layer with second gloss level. Each layer serves a specific purpose in the verification system, making the overall structure more complex but significantly more resistant to counterfeiting.
Solution Approach 2:
Different regions of the label have different optical properties. The first image has a first gloss level while the second image has a second gloss level different from the first. This local variation in quality creates unique verification characteristics that are difficult to replicate.
2Reliability
If complex verification features are added to the label, then counterfeit resistance improves, but manufacturing precision requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The invention changes the optical parameter of gloss level across different regions of the label. By creating areas with different gloss levels (first image with first gloss level, second image with second gloss level), the system creates verification features that are inherent to the manufacturing process itself, reducing the need for additional precision verification steps.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The solution effectively deters counterfeiting and relabeling by making it difficult for counterfeiters to reproduce the intricate patterns and reflectivity differences, while enabling trained personnel to verify the authenticity of the labels.
Implementation Method 1
a first image is printed on the label and has a first level of spectural reflectivity, and a second image printed atop the first image using ink and has a spectural reflectivity different from the spectural reflectivity of the first image
Data Source
AI summary
Improved product labels cannot be easily counterfeited. A plurality of small dots printed on the label are interpreted as dirt or flaw or misprint so that the counterfeit label will not reproduce the plurality of small dots. A first image printed on the label and having a first level of spectural reflectivity, and a second image printed atop the first image using ink having a spectural reflectivity different from the spectural reflectivity of the first image. A plurality of very small dots creates a grayscale field, and a symbol printed within the grayscale field of very small dots, thereby creating a watermark of such high complexity that it cannot be counterfeited. A symbol printed on the label, and a raised dot of ink printed atop the symbol at a precise location to be sensed by finger contact and thereby indicate the authenticity of the label.